Nate Diaz has left the Russian reality television show he was filming in Thailand after he was involved in a mass brawl on set.
The UFC veteran was set to co-star alongside UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones in an Ultimate Fighter-type series that pitted the two MMA legends against one another as coaches.
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However, Diaz and his team walked off set and quit the show after a physical altercation with one of the contestants.
Diaz’s longtime teammate, Jake Shields, was on set with his friend and recounted the events that transpired on his YouTube channel, accompanied by video footage of the punch-up.
In Shields’ video, the fighter is seen interacting with Jones before seemingly shooting in for a takedown on Diaz.
The Stockton scrapper stuffs the fighter’s attempt before uncorking a slap.
The scene then descended into chaos as members of Diaz’s team walked up on the fighter and punched him multiple times.
Shields claimed that rather than defusing the situation, the producers allowed the two parties to return to the same room where another brawl broke out.
“This time I got involved,” Shields said.
“I tackled the guy, and then suddenly, right when I started to go off on him, I got just blitzed from the side.
“Not where the fighters were, a couple of guys just started blitzing me, which to me seemed like they were crew working there, not fighters, because the fighters were in the chairs.
“To me, it was very clear that it was the staff and the workers.
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“That was one of those moments where it’s like I better diffuse the situation.”
The footage shows Shields curled up in the fetal position while multiple men rain down a series of shots on the grounded MMA fighter.
Once the melee had been broken up, Shields claims the “chaos” continued, resulting in Diaz and his team choosing to walk off set.
According to Shields, the production team tried to get them back to finish the show.
However, they chose not to return. “Why are we going to go back and film a show?” Shields added.
“It’s one thing to be fighting the fighters, that’s why I went out there with Nate, I thought it was a possibility some of these fighters will try to test him.
“But when you have potentially the crew hitting you, too, it’s like no, f*** that.”
